Muti to miss final weekend of CSO residency

By Mark CaroFebruary 08, 2011

Doctors are saying that Monday's surgery to repair Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti’s facial fractures was a success, though a brief statement, issued late in the day via the CSO, offered no recuperation timetable and didn’t address whether the conductor would return to perform the final weekend of his scheduled three-week residency.

“During surgery, screws and plates were placed to facilitate healing of the facial fractures,” Alexis B. Olsson, Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery, said in the statement. “The upper and lower jaw have also been temporarily fixated using wires to stabilize the lower jaw during healing.”

He added that the surgery went “extremely well.”

“I anticipate that Maestro Muti will make a full recovery,” Olsson said.

Olsson and Deborah Rutter, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association will hold a briefing at 11:30 a.m. at Northwestern to discuss the surgery and Muti's future.

The 69-year-old conductor suffered what was characterized as “multiple facial and jaw fractures” when he fainted and pitched forward onto his face during a rehearsal Thursday at Orchestra Hall. The CSO’s Monday statement notes that Muti is still undergoing testing to determine the cause of his fainting.

Thursday evening Muti was scheduled to conduct the first program of a three-week residency, but his performances through Feb. 15 were canceled after his fall. These were to be Muti’s first performances since he missed about half of his month-long residency last fall due to “extreme gastric distress,” later determined to be related to exhaustion.

Raechel Alexander, the CSO’s vice president for public relations, said late Monday that the orchestra has made no decisions regarding the “Muti Conducts Brahms” program scheduled for Feb. 17-19.